Pierre Trudeau: You’ll have to answer for your abortion

“You know, at some point you are killing life in the foetus in self-defence – of what? Of the mother’s health or her happiness or of her social rights or her privilege as a human being? I think she should have to answer for it and explain. Now, whether it should be to three doctors or one doctor or to a priest or a bishop or to her mother-in-law is a question you might want to argue …. You do have a right over your own body – it is your body. But the foetus is not your body; it’s someone else’s body. And if you kill it, you’ll have to explain.”

Comments

– In 1972, political leaders already knew very well the truth about the human fetus, namely that it is not a part of the woman’s body – and yet, this lie still continues to be asserted to justify the right to abortion (though it’s more rhetoric than conviction, as I question how many people really believe it).

– Trudeau clearly believes that the fetus is a human life, not a part of the mother, and he understands that abortion is the killing of this unborn person. And yet, his quote leaves him open to the idea of legal abortion – he indicates that perhaps, the only person to whom the mother might have to explain is to her priest or her mother in law. How is that for a rather ruthless “survival of the strongest” view of life?

One has to keep in mind that the changes in the abortion law came via the judiciary, and the fact that no jury was willing to convict Morgenthaler, making the law unenforceable. Pierre Trudeau’s legislation required review by a hospital committee of 3 doctors before any abortion could take place. The main problem remains the mores of Canadians who accept abortion and who remain unwilling to enforce any law that would contain it. Until that problem goes away, there is nothing legislators can do. What is regrettable about Justin’s action is that by defining abortion as a “right” the pressure on women to exercise it will only increase when they face inconvenient pregnancies because the respect for the woman’s free exercise of conscience will be gone.